I love Dresden, and all of his many failings. His inability to keep his mouth shut is, more often than not, hilarious.

As for Michael? I don't get the feeling that he's really as perfect as people would make him out to be. Which makes him seem better, to me, because he isn't perfect. But he's trying, and that means a lot more to me.

Plus all the Carpenters are pretty damn awesome.

I mean, I wouldn't want Michael mad at me. But I'd be terrified if Charity was mad at me! ;~)

One of the best examples of a paladin I've seen, one of my two favorites.
Because the emphasis is on Good.

I mean, imagine Michael looking at Nicodemus, and whereas Harry often sees one of the scariest men on the planet, Michael sees a soul in need of saving, someone he'd forgive if the apology was genuine, etc. It'd probably be humbling, reading about someone who doesn't dehumanize anyone, even his enemies, instead seeing brothers and sisters who have lost their way.

While I agree with you, I do need to remind you about the time Harry broke Cassius' kneecaps and Michael basically thought it was the funniest thing ever

To be fair, Michael was actually pretty uncomfortable and disturbed by Harry torturing Cassius for information. Harry giving Cassius a quarter for the pay-phone to call an ambulance, when it costs more than 25 cents to do so these days? That Michael found hilarious.

Michael and Sanya knew their duty and the importance of performing it perfectly. There was definitely an element of satisfaction, though, when Harry pointed out to Cassius that he didn't share that duty. The quarter thing was just a lovely cherry on top.

* And the various times Michael was just a badass, often happening off screen because . . . well, we'd quickly lose interest in poor Harry.

There's a few others, but I want to avoid too many spoilers for those who haven't gotten to the later books.

I do like that Harry Dresden is an example of someone going from a relative newbie to a powerhouse. I mean, comparing Book 1 Harry to current Harry is almost literally like comparing a Level 1 D&D character to a Level 15 D&D character. You can clearly see how he went from a "rookie Spider-Man" type guy to someone who is the "experienced Spider-Man" that is well respected in the Marvel Universe . . . well, by everyone but Dan Slott.

Speaking of "badass off screen moments" the Michael short story I'd like to read is when he kills the dragon. That way we'd get a younger, less experienced Michael, maybe one who isn't as secure in his faith yet. Plus, then we'd get a cool scene of Michael slaying a freakin' DRAGON!

I think another cool part of Michael's character is that while he is very faithful man with strong beliefs it's not at the expense of common sense. "My faith protects. My Kevlar helps." is a good example of that. Also I find it adorably that his wife is the one who makes/repairs his armor for him.

Yeah that was one of the more badass moments in the series. Charity reaches into the back of the van and pulls out chainmail and a sword and a freaking Warhammer and promptly disabuses everyone of the notion that shes just some mere house wife.

oh no

SHES A HOUSE WIFE!!

Dr. Silverback has wryly observed that this is like trying to teach lolcats about Shakespeare

This might sound like an odd thing to praise, but after series like Preacher, Supernatural, Spawn, Hellblazer and even Gaiman's The Sandman, it's nice to have a series where the forces of Heaven are unambiguously good guys. It was just one of those things that bugged me in a lot of fiction where Hell is run by these 100% completely evil a-holes . . . and Heaven is usually run by morally dubious a-holes. It just painted this really depressing picture of the universe where you could have capital E Evil forces in Hell without equally capitol G Good forces in Heaven to balance them out.

There was a nice scene where Father Forthill was near death, and Harry saw an Angel of Death hovering near him. Harry was initially prepared to fight said angel (despite not knowing at the time just how freakingly powerful angels are), but the AoD made it clear that her purpose there was to safeguard Forthill's soul. There are some things that will try to interfere with a soul on its proper path to whatever afterlife awaits it, and the forces of Hell will often employ agents to try to screw with the souls of particularly righteous people who have helped thwart Hell's agenda in the past. The AoD made it clear that if Lucifer himself tried to claim Forthill's soul, it would only happen over the AoD's dismembered corpse.

Likewise, the fact that the Carpenters have round the clock Angel Bodyguard service is just awesome, making their home one of the safest places on Earth, supernaturally speaking.

This might sound like an odd thing to praise, but after series like Preacher, Supernatural, Spawn, Hellblazer and even Gaiman's The Sandman, it's nice to have a series where the forces of Heaven are unambiguously good guys. It was just one of those things that bugged me in a lot of fiction where Hell is run by these 100% completely evil a-holes . . . and Heaven is usually run by morally dubious a-holes. It just painted this really depressing picture of the universe where you could have capital E Evil forces in Hell without equally capitol G Good forces in Heaven to balance them out.

Not just the forces of Heaven, but religious people in general seem to be depicted that way. I'm far from religious, but even I get a bit tired of them always being shown that way. Luckily, Butcher seems to avoid that as a whole. Plus, he's also one of the few people to show Hades in a much more accurate light.

Heh, I'm listening to the audio-book of Skin Games right now, and I'm having a blast.

For anyone who hasn't listened to them, the audio-books of the Dresden Files are some of the best out there. James Marsters does an amazing job, and I frankly can't think of Harry Dresden without hearing Marsters' voice in my head. He just captures everything amazingly well.

Skin Game itself just has a lot of things I love about the series, and it's sort of a "return to form" after Changes sort of turned everything on its head. Plus it involves Michael doing what he does best: getting through Harry's thick skull and kicking copious amounts of ass while still being a perfect, honorable, gentleman.

The fact that we got to see Butters and Uriel both being awesome AND being funny was a definite plus. I mean, Uriel is oddly adorable in this story.